Rising from Ashes
by Effarig
Summary: Ever wonder what it's like to have Devil's Fruit powers? For Katame, it's far from the amazing experience we all imagined: the fruit tastes horrible, it's hard to control and instead of helping her learn, her crew wants to sell her for easy money. Follow Katame as she joins the Kidd Pirates in their travels, tries to master her powers and gain the crew's trust. Eventually KiddxOC
1. Chapter 1

The crashing of bottles and the screams of grown men emanated from a tavern as two drunks were thrown out one of the windows as if they were light as feathers. A muscular man with flaming red hair followed after the disoriented pair, towering over them. Sobering them up with a piercing amber glare, he growled:

"I'll ask one last time. Where the fuck is it?"

Usually, nobody sailing the Grand Line would even consider disembarking on this tiny wooded island that housed only a dock and a few shops. Only recently had it become the center of attention to gangs, bandits and now the Kidd Pirates, who were all competing to rip the fabled Devil's Fruit out of someone's cold dead hands and harness the incredible power for themselves.

"T-There was a fight over it between the local bandits and another pirate crew just off the docks a few days ago," one of the men squirmed, trying to avoid the Captain's menacing eyes. "The pirate ship hasn't left the dock since then, s-so they're likely dead...The bandits use the old lumber mill as their base, b-but there's no telling what they've done with the Devil's Fruit if they have it." The other man nervously nodded his head to verify the statement.

"Now, was that so hard?" Kidd grinned, offering his hand to the talkative man, who cautiously pulled himself up off the ground and quickly limped away. The other man, still quietly bobbing his head, began to shift his weight off the ground before he was sent flying back by the impact of Kidd's foot slamming against his face.

"Killer! Take a few men and meet me at the lumber mill...and grab me a another beer on your way out!" Kidd called into the tavern through the shattered window. He kicked his victim once more in the stomach and started for the woods, leaving a trail of bloody boot-prints behind him.

* * *

Just as Kidd's informant had said, the old lumber mill was far from abandoned; even in an area dense with thick-trunked trees, one could hear the trigger-happy firing of flintlocks and the thudding sounds of bodies hitting the creaky wooden floors. Kidd waited to be joined by his masked First Mate and a few other rough-and-tumble men before rushing to join the commotion.

The pirates hacked and slashed their way through the crowd of men that surrounded the building without much effort. In fact, _none of the bandits were initiating combat_ , Killer observed through the holes of his mask: instead, the conflict was focused inside of the mill itself.

"Those idiots fighting amongst themselves? Makes things easier for us," Kidd huffed, a bit disappointed that he wasn't the center of violence. _No, that wasn't it_ , Killer thought. The way the bandits gathered, defending the entrances; rather than keeping intruders from entering, it was as if they were keeping someone from leaving...

As the pirates drew closer to the building, the faint cries radiating from within became clearer and formed into words:

"Find the girl! Don't let her escape!"

"Huh?!" Kidd exclaimed. He stormed over to the mill's front gate and lifted one of its guards by the collar while his crew subdued the others.

"You've got a hold of my Devil's Fruit and you shits are wasting my time by fighting over a girl?!" he roared, eyes flaring. The bandit struggled to escape the pirate's grip, frantically looking over his shoulder as new comrades replaced the fallen ones to defend the entryway.

Suddenly, a large semicircular blade with gear-like spokes sliced through the shoulder of one of the men. The irregular weapon was strapped to the forearm of a girl with long brown hair that was tied back and a scar just under her right eye. It seemed as if she would lose balance under the weight of the blade, but the girl swiftly pivoted on one foot and slashed open the back of a second bandit with an identical blade on her other arm. As the girl continued to swing her blades around, trying to cut a path to her freedom, the Kidd Pirates pondered how a single girl could cause so much commotion.

 _She's pretty, but not THAT pretty. Why fight over her when you can get yourself a better one on the next island over?_ Kidd evaluated.

 _She's good with those blades, but not THAT good. It's just one girl against hordes of men, and she's probably exhausted by now._ Killer observed

 _Why not just kill her, it can't be THAT hard._ They both concluded. Kidd began to loosen his grip on the bandit.

"Look, I don't give a shit about the girl- hell, I'll even take her out for you if she's giving you that much trouble. Just hand over the Devil's Fruit and _maybe_ I'll let you live," he declared as the man dropped from the pirate's hold. The bandit hurriedly scrambled to his feet and growled,

"You idiot, the girl IS the fruit! Don't let her escape!"

Kidd's eyes widened and his dark lips curled into a sinister grin as he twisted his body to watch the girl dash past him and head for the woods. He stretched out his arm towards her shrinking silhouette as if he could snatch her from the distant landscape. The knives and guns in each of the bandit's hands began to tremble and pull their owners towards the pirate, who let out a low chuckle:

"Well, this just became a lot more interesting"

* * *

Author's Note: I'm not Oda, so I don't own anything from One Piece. Otherwise, enjoy!


	2. Chapter 2

The girl heaved and huffed as she finally broke through the crowd of men. She could feel less and less air filling her lungs, and her body stung with splinters and cuts, but she continued running towards the wooded area faster than her legs could take her.

She could still taste the Devil's Fruit on her tongue, and not in a good way. The mysterious black orb embellished with red swirls tasted far from what any fruit should ever taste like: the moment the flesh hit her tongue it crumbled and the flaky texture completely coated her mouth and infused her taste buds with the foul flavor. If she ever ended up eating mud mixed with wood shavings, she figured that it would taste like Devil's Fruit.

Without stopping, the girl cocked her head over her shoulder to check if her pursuers were far behind. Her eyes caught the new group of men who had joined the fray. They were large and muscular and menacing, and she had watched them take down the bandits like a trail of dominoes; she knew that if they caught her, her chances of escaping would be slim to none.

 _But do they know that I was the one who ate the Devil's Fruit?_ she wondered, _After all, I haven't seen or felt any changes to my body since consuming it..._ She peeked once more to find that the pirates were no longer attacking the bandits; if they didn't know before, they surely did now. She nervously watched a redheaded man turn towards her and stretch an arm out from under his fur coat in her direction.

 _A gun can't reach this far. What's he going to do from all the way back there, shoot a laser beam?_ she joked to herself... but then again, she didn't want to take any chances, so she began to run back and forth in a zig-zag pattern to avoid incoming projectiles. Suddenly, the girl felt something pulling her by the arms. She watched as the guns and knives of the bandits gravitated towards the pirate's hand like a magnet, and she shakily tried to loosen the leather straps on her forearms as her large blades began to do the same. But she wasn't able to separate the metal from her body in time, as her arms buckled behind her and hauled her backwards. As she began to drag across the ground, the girl tucked her legs in towards herself as rocks and twigs and tree roots kicked up and cut into the backs of her thighs. She frantically dug her already worn-down shoes into the ground as a makeshift brake, but the closer she was dragged towards the pirate, the faster she went and the less traction her feet had to hold on to.

Finally, the girl stopped at the feet of her captor and she looked up to meet his amber gaze. His pale complexion, blazing red hair, and the demonic look on his face; she remembered it all from the wanted posters: Eustass Kidd, maybe the most vicious supernova on the Grand Line. And to his right, she identified the masked man with the long blonde locks as his First Mate, Killer, who was just as ferocious as his Captain from what she had heard. She knew that the only reason they'd be on this island was to find the Devil's Fruit, and now that they knew she took it away from them...she felt the color drain from her face as she imagined her fate.

* * *

Kidd looked down at the girl and grinned with satisfaction at the look of fear that had overcome her. But remembering that such a weakling was now in possession of such a coveted power turned his expression sour. Without releasing his magnetic hold, Kidd turned to Killer and sent him a glare that said a thousand words: his crew positioned themselves and proceeded to cut down the remaining bandits.

"Consider ending your miserable lives a favor. Dumbasses who let girl swipe a Devil's Fruit from under their noses have no right to live," he grimaced, then turned to lock eyes with his prisoner.

"And you...are you one of them?" he asked. The girl shook her head.

"Then you're a pirate?" She shook her head again, and replied cautiously:

"My name is Terrana Katame. This island is a territory of Peria, a large country a ways north of here: my homeland." She saw no reason to lie; even if she did, Katame sensed that they'd notice instantly, and there would be consequences.

"My father was something like an informant," she continued, "he spent his life trading secrets until he became a treasure trove of information. A few weeks ago, a group of pirates stopped by looking for clues regarding the Devil's Fruit... knowledge that some would kill for..." Katame shifted her eyes away and her face fell dark.

"So you sought revenge?" Killer inquired. Katame shifted around a bit before giving a reply; her arms, now forced above her head towards Kidd's magnetic palm, were growing unbearably sore.

"Yes, I wanted to make sure they'd never get a hold of their precious treasure, so I snuck on their ship and hid until they docked on this island. I didn't expect them to be defeated by the bandits, and I was captured when they looted the ship.

"So the pirates were killed and eventually you were able to escape from the bandits without it's power, so why the hell did you eat the fruit?!" Kidd snapped. Katame lifted her head and glared right back at him.

"Even if those pirates didn't take the Devil's Fruit, those bandits or some other pirates -someone just as bad- would obtain it instead. I thought that if I made this power my own... at least it'd be in good hands," she declared.

Kidd and Killer glanced at each other, knowing that they were both thinking the same thing: They couldn't tell whether the girl was gutsy or just plain stupid.

* * *

Katame's father had taught her that when dealing with someone who had the upper hand, confidence was a valuable source of power. Hoping that her bold remarks would earn her a bit of respect -and a better chance of leaving the island alive- she pressed on, trying to steady her slightly trembling voice.

"Well, are you going to kill me now? If you do, the Devil's Fruit will reappear, probably somewhere far from here...but something tells me you have better things to do than going on another wild goose chase." _Maybe she could talk her way to freedom,_ she thought to herself.

"You have a point," Kidd replied as an amused expression swept across his face, "but that doesn't mean we can't just sell you off for a hefty sum as some noble's entertainment instead -or better yet, with that sense of justice of yours, we could hand you over to the Marines and the World Government to turn a blind eye to our movements for a while!"

He flashed a wide, toothy grin that made any hope Katame had left drain away.


End file.
